Botanical Bonanza
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Friends
I am very proud of myself. I planned a lovely outing to the Botanical Gardens for today. The only bummer is that Chitra and Priya, who've never been, couldn't make it. And of course, that Reed was out of town. We had a lovely picnic outside, complete with bread, wine, herb olive oil complete with parmesian and lemon and salt and pepper, home-made sushi curtesy of Nao, and lots of picture taking going on. We didn't have time to play games but we managed to cover most of the park between eating, and there were many antics including scaring people. Picture links:

Shailah's pics

bookmark for mine:(check back later)

bookmark for Dane's: (check back later)

Addie's Spoofs :-)

bookmark for Addie's regular pictures

My favorite pictures are where it's all the girls and the guys on the sides and the girls legs are all crossed in the same direction. I planned that one :-) and I love it.

Gina's ma
Mood:  happy
Topic: Friends
ok, so we go online to create gina's ma a match.com profile. and ha ha ha we try to create an account for her and her email address is already used. ha she has one already and gina didn't know ha ha ha.

Tess is in the hospital
Mood:  down
Topic: Friends
I just got an email from Addie. I was gonna go out but now I'm gonna jump in the shower and get over to the hospital. !!!! again!!!!????

Jen's bad day
Topic: Friends
Jen wanted to know if she could come over for dinner (she was going to bring it but I'll have none of that because -->) because she was having a bad day. So I decided to surprize her with a nice dinner, menu and all. Here's what the leftovers looked like, and the menu.

Dear Jen,

I'm sorry to hear you had a rough day.
I hope I can take all your troubles away.
Don't worry my dear,
To me it is clear,
Your worries will flee when you start drinking beer.








Le Menu:

Starters:
A lovely Presidente brie cheese with spiced olive oil and concord grapes
Caprice Salad
Grilled Vegetables
Farm Fresh Grilled Shrimp on Skewer

Main Course
Orange Marinade Salmon
Zucchini and Mushroom confit

Desert:

Fresh hot apple pie from Jewel with lovely vanilla ice cream

Tuesday Night
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Friends
Reed Jen and I went to our usual Tuesday night gathering. This time it was Jen's pick, and a very good one at that, Cafe Matou. A bit pricy but delicious. Great chocolate beer and champaigne. We had desert there, but then we went to margie's for candy for desert #2, and Marche for dessert #3 because I thought they'd have the cherry soup but it's seasonal. Overall a great time. Next week, we go to some italian place Reed suggested, followed by very Green Mill.

Fynn
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: happy b-day
Topic: Friends
my unkle Dmitri's b-day. Also a B-day for Jackie'n'Dan's firstborn "Fynn was born on Monday, Aug 23 at 10:07pm. He came into the world weighing
6 lbs 9.5 ozs and was 19.5 inches long" Mom and kid doing well.

Weekend roundup
Mood:  blue
Topic: Friends
Went out to dinner for a friend's b-day last night, heard a bizarre story of betrayal and unfaithfulness from a girlfriend who it happened to the day before, and went to the Rainforest Caf? for a friend's daughter's b-day, watching the 9 year-old get more clothes then I think I currently own and about $300 in cash along with other stuff too. Wow kids get a lot those days. It cracks me up to have like 15 small Philippino children run up to me and say Tita Irene, could you please this or that? Too cute. Had to keep my distance so that I don't get them sick.

Did very little cuz I've spent the weekend being sick at home. No blueberries, no air and water show, no excersize, no clubbing. nothing.

Topic: Friends
I finally caught up on sleep -10 hours.

So the other day, when I went clubbing, it turned out that one of my friends got totally thrown out of the club. I guess I got a few "butt" calls while it was happening. His phone must have been in his pocket and kept dialing my number and leaving voicemails. So I actually have a full recording of him getting kicked out of the club. It's sooo funny:

Bejoy: (read his part with an Indian accent) What did I do?
Bouncer: (read his part with a tough guy accent)You know what you did.
Bejoy: I don't know what I did, tell me what I did!
Bouncer: Oh, you know exactly what you did.
Bejoy: I didn't do nothing

... it went on like that for a good 20 minutes. Then Bejoy actually left a real message, saying that he got kicked out, so that we don't look for him. I didn't get these until the next day because I just passed out when I got home. And then I had to piece all the calls together. I called Reed to get his story before I called Bejoy back. Turns out they were trying to hit on some girls, and Bejoy was a bit aggressive trying to get them to dance. He probably grabbed some girl's hands or something and freaked her out. I talked to Bejoy and he has no idea what he did. (as mentioned before). So I'm gonna have to talk to him about not making physical contact with strangers.

Lunch
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: teen golf on TV
Topic: Friends
GP and AA and I had dinner at the Fox and Hound in Schaumburg. We figured out it must have been the first time since a year ago at Friday's. We vowed to do that more often. Nice to see friends in the middle of a hostile day.

AA has been on strict oatmeal diet because his mom's worried about his heart. I hope he'll be OK. He quit Kendo for now, so that he can get better. I know he was too sick to go to work one day. I wonder how sick. I wish he'd try yoga. And get health insurance so that he can go to doctors. Sigh.

From Miami to ORD
Now Playing: Sound of Music
Topic: Friends
Sundag

Went for a walk with the parents and the dog in the morning in Miami woods. Saw a snake! It was a very small one, in the middle of the road. Also saw a field of Queen Anne's Lace, a field of beautiful white daisies, and a field of golden lilies. Saw Bambi, a baby deer with spots still, lying with his head and torso peeking over a log, and a chipmunk standing next to him on the log. My mom said it was like the chipmunk was babysitting. I wish I could post pictures here, but I don't think this blog is set up that way. I may have to add another.

Flew to MSP out of ORD. Flight was delayed by a lot. Got in to bed by 2am. They forgot my cookies at the doubletree :-(.